And? Geoffrey said similar with how he said that NWN was definitely for the more mature PC market… But how does all this apply to Mass Effect? It’s simply a shooter/RPG (no Gehn, I somehow I assumed it was FPS/RPG, I’m not certain either now that you mention it), how would this NOT appeal to the PC Market and therefor make a perfect 360 exclusive?[/quote]
It’s difficult to be sure how well the game would work on a console or PC considering that very little gameplay details have been announced, but since the game is being designed solely for the 360 it is likely that the game is being designed with a controller in mind, as opposed to a keyboard and mouse. That doesn’t mean that the game couldn’t work with a keyboard/mouse… most games can, but if Bioware are able to reach a broader market, cut development costs and help the Xbox 360 out by giving it another exclusive, then why not? The game isn’t going to be any “less” because it’s running on the 360 considering the console’s high definition graphics, so I don’t really see what the problem is.
I suppose you could compare it to how SquareEnix have split the Final Fantasy series over different systems… the main series on PS2, the MMORPG on the 360 and PC, and the Crystal Chronicles series on the Gamecube. It?s the same kind of thing here, but with different series’… PC gets Dragon Age, and the Xbox 360 gets Mass Effect. Who knows, maybe the PS3 and Revolution will get their own Bioware games eventually as well.
I’d also not bet so surely on them developing this game just because they were contracted to do so… I’d say it’s more likely they were developing the title beforehand (they did invest on Unreal Engine 3 a while ago on their own after all) and presented it to publishers, with Microsoft picking it up and/or deciding to pay them to make it a 360 exclusive…
I never really brought quality/design issues myself, I was simply presenting arguments to some of the other reasons people posted.
Al3xand3r, OK dude, perhaps I’m misinterpreting some of it. And I can totally relate to how you might feel… I’m really just trying to get the point across that it’s not a personal affront to Bioware’s fans.
Bioware are also who they are today because they’ve made smart and safe decisions by patiently paying their dues building a reputation of craftsmanship and reliability with mostly someone elses design priorities. And when you use terms like “Microsoft’s big rights buying pockets” it distances your perspective from the reality of both this industry and Bioware’s history.
Just because Microsoft happens to be the publisher of this game, and just because they have an agenda that makes a console the development priority does not make the situation fundamentally different from any other project Bioware have worked on. Someone else was always buying the rights to something after all.
Are you truly going to begrudge Bioware for accepting the priorities of one of the first publishers that’s rewarding their hard work, by betting big on them to do their own thing?
The world is never static, and the PC market is no longer the land of milk and honey… not that it ever truly was. It’s clear most established PC developers see some writing of some sort on some walls somewhere or another. Everyone’s trying to buy some real estate on the console map now that the western gates (of mainstream acceptance) have been thrown wide.
Bioware have been basically handed a pole position for the land rush, be happy they have the chance to stake a big claim on what may well be the new frontier.
And since when is a multiplatform game a sign of a developer that won’t manage to be as succesful as someone who is paid to do exclusive titles? Would the game really be considered “worse” in any way if it was developed for both the PC and the 360? Wouldn’t an amazing multi platform game make the company ever more known to an even wider audience (say if it was for all the next gen consoles and the pc) rather than accepting a deal to make it an exclusive to the 360 trilogy? Wouldn’t it also have the chance to bring back even more revenue?
The only copany that could suffer from that is Microsoft, not Bioware themselves. Sure they get to have early or perhaps more funding during the development but I’m sure many publishers, after seeing this, would be eager to unleash it to as wide an audience as possible, on every current system, to then sit back and enjoy the sales numbers…
Just saying all this because your post made it sound like Microsoft was Bioware’s savior or something, giving them the chance to do something big in next gen, by paying them to make this an exclusive… As if a game like this wouldn’t become big if it was multi platform…
I don’t think he’s saying that it’s worse to go multi-platform. Rather, I think he’s saying that Bioware is pretty good at making decisions and they have probably weighed the pros and cons of both. In the end, they likely decided that it was either more profitable to go exclusive for whatever reason, or perhaps less risky.
shrug Alright I’ll take one final stab at this Al3xand3r.
Bioware obviously have no need for a savior, but does that mean they shoudn’t take full advantage of the opportunities that find them? I have in no way portrayed the circumstance as either altruistic or indispensable. My arguments for the positive side were intended in direct counterpoint to your blanket negativity.
You persist in ignoring all precedent in your evident need to spin things as either a sellout on Bioware’s part, or an evil coercion that only MS and their singularly big pockets could ever perpetrate on a poor defenseless developer. Are Bioware known for concurrent multi-platform development? How many developers can you think of that release long play, high production value games on more than one platform simultaneously and still maintain a reputation for top quality?
But my independant point is not ultimately to argue against you on the same level of what’s theoretically best for Bioware or this game. Only that the size of MS pockets and the specific development platform are irrelevant. This is still 100% business as usual for Bioware, they deliver the goods, someone else sets the demographics and takes the risks.
But it’s cool, you appear to be in the second stage of grief still and I may have already contributed to arresting the process. Feel betrayed if you must, stew in bitterness or whatever it takes. I hope it works out for you somehow.
Again I’m simply arguing with points other ppl bring up, though I did initiate this discussion because it honestly really is a disapointment that this game is a 360 exclusive after all the talk Bioware has done about still being a PC developer primarily. Of course anyone planning to get a 360 is going to be happy about it and I guess most ppl here plan to do so…
Oh well, hopefully this is only an exclusive for a short while though with it being a planned trilogy I’d imagine that’s not likely to happen…
/me waits to see how Bioshock turns out, hopefully a worthy succesor to System Shock 2 and a great FPS/RPG on its own…
The “bioware” type of games’ plot never really engaged me.Maybe KOTOR a bit but in the end it were the side stories (dialogue whith characters, their stories) that made it good.
The main plot is never really engaging for me simply because I still believe that is veryvery hard with a costumizable main character…
